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Ravelry...

Hi!

I've been a member of Ravelry for some time now and am still a bit confused. I've used the site to find patterns for various things and there sure are a lot of wonderful patterns available in every conceivable type, from sweaters to mittens to......everything!

But there's so much more there I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of great things that would be valuable to me in my knitting life.

Does anyone have any advice on navigating the site? After all, everyone was a new member at some point. Am I the only one whose jaw dropped when they got a load of the sheer SIZE of the site? Holey Moley! Knitter's Paradise!

There are also forums or groups there, some for a particular pattern or designer, some for your state, city or area, some for discussing your favorite TV shows or movies or singers or...

I look up patterns, but also yarns, which you can see if someone is destashing any you might want and can't find. You can also look at the yarns to find projects made with different ones to see how they look knitted up - very useful for multicolored and striping yarn to give you an idea how the color changes run.

It can be overwhelming when you first go to Ravelry, but remember nothing is going to happen if you click something.

I use it for searching yarns..what other people say about it, what projects were made with it, what a colorway might look like.

I use it for pattern searching and because you can filter by yarn weight, pattern type, gauge, needle size, etc you can get closer to the type you are looking for. Some are misfiled of course, but the majority are fine.

Everyday I check the recent patterns by clicking the pattern tab then scrolling down to recent and clicking. If I like it I add it to my favorites or sometimes I'll buy if it really grabs me.

When I find a pattern I like I click on yarn ideas to see what yarn others have used, projects, comments, etc.

I much prefer the close community we have here for social chatting, questions, etc, but their groups are good for specific topics.

And personally, I keep my projects there as well. It's a great way to keep track of your notes for the project, including your needle size, yarn used, colorway, etc. If someone asks what needle size or yarn I used I can just go look.

__________________
Jan

When asking questions ALWAYS post the name and a link for the pattern if you have it.

I enjoy being able to see what other people have done with patterns (color, yarn choice, etc.). And I LOVE the pattern search function. If I have 500 yards of DK weight wool, I can search for a pattern to go with it. As far as the forums go, I mostly post on a family forum there, as my sisters and my aunts and a cousin are all on Ravelry. I belong to a few other groups, but rarely post on their forums.

I get lost on Ravelry too. I know it's a good resource to keep track of what you have but I'm just not that organized. I need to go play there more often so I feel less initmadated by it. I, too, like this forum for posting questions, etc. I feel like I've found a really great group of people here.